Feel It In Your Bones
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day three hundred and seventy-four:  PREQUEL TO #186  Her grandfather never misses their Sunday night call, and Brittany knows something's wrong.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 17th cycle. Now cycle 18!_

**YEAR ONE ANNIVERSARY CYCLE!** - It has now been one year since I've started this Gleekathon, and I had a thought that I should do something special for it. So this is what I did: Selecting from the start of it all to the end of august (well, I had to plan! ;)), I picked my 21 favorite one shots. A number of those I was very attached to, but left sad to see may have fallen through the cracks, so it seems fair they should be recognized.

The 21 stories were split in three categories: **POV swap - Prequel - Sequel**... I think that goes without saying ;) In no particular order... **Today's story** is a Prequel to #186 "Vigil For Joseph" a Mike/Brittany story originally posted April 25th 2010.

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**"Feel It In Your Bones"  
(Sue &) Brittany & Joseph**

Sunday should have been filled of doom for her, with her return to school the next morning, but it wasn't… Sunday nights, she'd have her call with her grandfather, without fail. Somehow it still hadn't connected with her that beating that pre-Monday jitter was how that routine had even started. After that, she'd go to sleep without a worry.

Even as she'd grown, they continued doing it, and every Sunday, there she'd sit, with the phone at her side until finally she was rewarded with the ringtone and she'd pick up to hear her grandfather's voice on the other end… Then there was that Sunday…

She sat, same as always, waiting for the phone to ring. She sat, settled in… Tucked her legs under herself… Scratched her knee… Undid her ponytail, shook out her hair… Untucked one leg… Made a thin little braid on one side… Made one on the other… Watched the Leaves shake in the wind outside her window…

The dread was building inside her, whether she knew it was there or not… Her chest was becoming too tight to breathe… and finally she'd looked at the clock; she frowned. He was late… fifteen, almost twenty minutes… That never happened… Not one Sunday, not one time that he was ever late for more than a minute, two at the most, without having a valid reason he warned her about beforehand.

She stared at the clock for a moment more before grabbing the handheld and dashing down to find her mother in her office. She stopped at the door, the phone clutched to her heart… or as close to where she figured it was. When her mother finally acknowledged her presence, she squeezed at the phone.

"He's late," she simply stated.

"You'll come to realize, that's just what men do, they keep you waiting," she almost mumbled as she went on writing.

"He's never late. Never." She sighed, looking up. "Something's wrong."

"Or it's constipation," she gestured with her glasses. Brittany watched her for a moment, and then she went back upstairs. The first thing she saw when she got back in her room was the clock… even later now.

She dialled his number… She waited and hoped he'd picked up… And with each new unanswered ring, she was more and more focused on the window, until finally she hung up. She looked back, and then she put on shoes and a vest and she climbed out the window, down the side of the house to the ground. She got on her bike and she was off.

She knew something was wrong, even if her mother wouldn't believe her. If there was one thing she knew, one thing she could never be wrong about, it was that her grandfather hadn't and wouldn't knowingly let her down like this unless something big had stopped him.

She arrived at the house and, when ringing the bell had not done a thing, she'd reached into the shrubs, pulled out the clay figure and got the key from inside. He'd shown her where it was, time and again, so she wouldn't forget.

As she got the door open, all she wanted to see was her grandfather, asleep in his armchair, something to make her stomach stop feeling so weighed down… let her mother be right, let her punish her for sneaking…

She saw a blue slipper on the ground as she looked into the living room. She didn't shut the door; she approached with the key and its hiding figure in her hand and her heart in her throat. She knew what she'd find, but she didn't want to see it, because once she did, it would never not be there anymore; it'd become a part of her.

She walked on autopilot, and as she entered the room more of it revealed itself, until she could see, near that slipper… a foot, and everything else tied to it until she saw his face, or part of it… She took steps, but each of them hesitated, tried to make her retreat. But now her eyes couldn't let him go, and still she got closer. Maybe it was shock; whatever it was, it kept her from losing it completely. That was until she spoke, and she heard the tremble in her voice as she called a hopeful "Grampy?" Then, then her eyes got to sting and well up. Before they'd burst though, she'd seen the phone, still on the table. She reached a shaking hand to it and dialled 911. She was barely coherent, but it was enough to get out the call for help. It was as she did what the woman told her that she found, much to her relief, that Joseph was still breathing, still alive. That alone gave her all the license she needed to go ahead and start hoping again, just a little. She stayed there, crouched at his side, holding his hand, the whole time as they waited. In that time, she would speak to him, not considering that he was unconscious and wouldn't hear. She remembered, when she'd be sick when she was little, he would take care of her, and sometimes she would fall asleep. And when she'd wake up, there he'd be… He'd looked out for her, whether or not she could tell, so she'd be there for him, so he'd see the same when he woke up.

Paramedics arrived, and Brittany stood back, with the key, the figure, and now her grandfather's blue slippers. She followed, riding in the ambulance. The next little while was a blur. Next thing she knew, they were in a hospital room, he was in a bed and she was sitting on a small couch, staring at him.

She'd never seen him like this, and she tried to be brave, so he'd wake up and see how she was there for him, but she was terrified. He was the one she always confided in, no matter what. He cared so much, and so did she… she couldn't imagine not having him there… And now her tears had no way to be held back. She sat huddled on that couch, wiping at her eyes when they got too blurry.

Somewhere in the blur, she suddenly saw a figure at the door. Even then she knew who it was… Her mother. Her mother who hadn't believed her…

"I went up to check on you after a while, and you weren't there, but the window was open and there were leaves inside." Brittany just stared at Joseph. "Didn't take a genius to know where you went. A neighbor mentioned the ambulance." She stopped talking, but Brittany didn't look up. Then out of the blue, she felt arms around her shoulders… Her mother's arms. She breathed out, sniffling.

"Can I stay with him? I have to stay until he wakes up…" she kept looking at him.

"He…" Sue started, paused. "As long as you need, absolutely." Eventually, Sue left. Brittany wiped her eyes… He'd wake up; she'd see him through.

THE END

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[A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, story alert won't get you anything! ;)]


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